The Football Forecast

La Liga Season Preview 2015/16 – Valencia

We believe that Valencia will have an average season and finish in 5th position.

Last season they finished in 4th position; one point behind 4th but one point ahead of fifth. This was a very good season for the club seeing as they finished 5th and 8th in the previous two seasons. Making many key signing helped Valencia this season which included Nicolas Otamendi who finished as the clubs joint 4th top scorer which is impressive seeing as he’s a centre back. Forward Paco Alcacer finished as the clubs top scorer with an impressive 14 goals. One negative from last season would be that 1/3 of the goals that Valencia conceded were in the final 15 minutes of the game. This is most probably due to their overall match fitness. However, their were more positives than negatives which included the fact that they lost only 5 games last term (The second lowest in the league, behind the champions Barcelona).

Can Valencia regain their champions league status for the 2016/17 season? We think that they can, only if they get off to this season to a good start. Valencia’s first 5 games are against beatable opponents. These teams are Rayo Vallecano, Deportivo La Coruna, newly promoted Sporting Dijon and Real Betis and finally Espanyol. Playing two of the three newly promoted teams in the first 5 games will really boost the teams confidence with a near guaranteed 6 points. I feel that they can potentially be inside the top 2 after around 8 games being as they don’t really play many hard teams up until this point. After making many signings including the permanent signature of Alvaro Negredo, Valencia’s side look stronger than last season. However, all of the teams around them are also bolstering their squads.

For me, their key player next season will be central midfielder Daniel Parejo. After scoring 11 goals and getting 8 assists last season, Parejo is only improving as a player at 26. Parejo began at Real Madrid ‘C’ before being promoted to R.M Castilla. After a season, he was loaned out to QPR where he impressed and was called up to Real Madrid first team when he came back but was sold to Getafe. After two seasons here, he was then sold to Valencia where has stayed at since. I feel that Parejo can exceed further this season and will score 15+ goals and will produce 10+ assists. I believe that he will really be a huge part of Valencia’s success next season. One thing that Dani needs to stop doing is committing fouls. This is because last season he received one red card and 13 yellow cards. This isn’t good enough for a player that is so key to Valencia.

In my opinion, for Valencia to start pushing for the top 3 spots, they need to buy a creative attacking midfielder who will score many goals and also set up many goals. I know I’ve said that Parejo will be key and scores goals as well and provides assists but he also have defensive responsibilities, especially when he plays in the defensive midfield position. A player like James Rodriguez at Real Madrid is great example. Someone who scores goals but also gets lots of assists. If they could sign anyone that would be perfect for this job, it would be 22 year old Frenchmen Nabil Fekir from Lyon. This lad has so much potential and does well with the ball. Last term, Fakir netted 15 times and managed to assist 13 goals. This player is also very versatile and can play on either flank swell as up top. Nail would cost Valencia around €12m.